#leadershipdevelopment

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On Friday, November 3, John Sampson (CEO of the NE Indiana Regional Partnership) will be the inaugural speaker at First Fridays hosted by Indiana Wesleyan University. In case you are not familiar with the Partnership, read the following excerpt and visit them at http://neindiana.com.

About the NE Indiana Regional Partnership

Increasing business investment. That’s what we’re all about. We’re here to support your business, build our community, and market our region to the world. How do we do all of that? Together. Collaboration is Northeast Indiana’s secret sauce and the key to building a globally competitive economy in our 11-county region.

Our mission is to build, market, and sell Northeast Indiana to increase business investment.

In a little over an hour, my leadership team and I will gather in a room to start a brainstorming session. We’re going to talk about how we can become better/do better. But instead of talking about ethereal topics, we’re going to put a timeline on our path to improvement. We’re going to get specific on how we plan to improve. We’re going to own our journey and our results.

Last week, we all attended the Global Leadership Summit (#gls17, #fwgls) here in Fort Wayne, Indiana. We were exposed to a lot of great content. It’s time to put that content to work for us. Today’s brainstorming session will kick-off this process.

Shock Test? Yes. We’re going to discuss what we would do/be differently when a deadline is applied to something we are expected to provide every day. More on this later…

Here are some of my notes from Day 2 of the Global Leadership Summit (#gls17) from this past Friday. I attended the remote site in Fort Wayne, Indiana (the largest remote site in the world).

Lazlo Bock (former VP of People Operations at Google)

“Often there is a gap between the values leaders talk about and the values they live.”

“Find the best people, grow them fast, and retain them.”

“The experience of our work should have purpose. Give work meaning. Have a mission that matters.” Lazlo cited a survey that found:

30% of employees feel their work has meaning

30% of employees need to work solely for the paycheck they get

30% of employees feel work is kind of fun

10% (he didn’t mention them – they’re probably outside on a break….)

“We must remind our teams of our mission all the time. It’s not a one-and-done thing.” How? Lazlo said that the best way to get our mission into our team members’ heads and hearts is through story-telling. But not just any stories – LIFE-CHANGING stories. These kinds of stories make a personal connection with our mission (I bet this work with our customers, too).

The Meaning of our Mission Matters. Here’s a way to uncover how we are connecting our mission to the people who carry it out as well as to our customers:

Ask: “Why do I do what I do?”…everyday.

Ask others why they do what they do.

Have customers share their stories. Make it easy for them to do this.

Repeat this process often

“Instead of giving quick answers to a team member’s inquiry on your opinion on an issues, ask them first: “What do you think?”

“Hire people better than I am.”

Julie Funt – CEO, WhiteSpace at Work

“When talented people are too overloaded/busy, work suffers. We tolerate overload.”

“White Space – that strategic pause taken between activities to reflect and think. Great leaders use white space. It can take the form of a personal retreat to an hour break to minutes.”

If you lead a team, you are coaching (or, at least, I trust that you are). I just gave a presentation this morning on why coaching is so important for our team members. I also shared the following on what happens to the COACH when he/she becomes a better:

Yourreputation improves in your company.

Your influence expands on your team and in your company.

Your voice/opinion is respected on your team and with your colleagues.

Your futurewill reveal more opportunitiesfor you.

There is no down side to working hard at becoming a better coach. Yes, your team members will become better, but YOU have benefits when you commit yourself to becoming a better coach.

Remember: “You influence from a distance. You impact up close.” Dwight Robertson